Wednesday 5 December 1666

Up, and by water to White Hall, where we did much business before the Duke of York, which being done, I away home by water again, and there to my office till noon busy. At noon home, and Goodgroome dined with us, who teaches my wife to sing. After dinner I did give him my song, “Beauty retire,” which he has often desired of me, and without flattery I think is a very good song. He gone, I to the office, and there late, very busy doing much business, and then home to supper and talk, and then scold with my wife for not reckoning well the times that her musique master hath been with her, but setting down more than I am sure, and did convince her, they had been with her, and in an ill humour of anger with her to bed.

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The Royal Society today at Gresham College — from the Hooke Folio Online

Dec: 5. 1666. Sr. R Moray mentiond a new kind of Leuell contriued by Dr Chr. wren which mr. Hooke was orderd to gett made as soon as he could, adding to it the way to determine how much it varys from the Leuell.

mr. Hooke produced a new sort of pendulum made after the manner of a Beam and soe contriued that by placing the beame neerer or farther below the center of motion, the pendulum may perform the vibrations in any time assigned in wch he affirmed to be one certaine Depth beyond which he affirmed the pendulum would not goe quickerwhich he had not yet Reduced to a theory but hoped to doe.

The same [ Mr Hooke ] hauing mentiond his two Instruments the one for fetching vp earth from the bottom of the Sea the other for fetching vp the seuerall sorts of earths out of the ground on the Land was orderd to get them both made wth speed.

The Expts. for next day. 1st transfusion its curator Dr Pope Dr King mr Cox mr Hook. mr Hookes new principle of making optick glasses -

"in an ill humour of anger with her to bed": so much for the cultivation of the finer arts to bring out the finer feelings. Now we need some eager, data-seeking Pepysian to trawl back through every mention of our man's two-minute ditty and see just how often he mentions its high quality "without flattery." Might we even get the score on the site here? Is that possible, Phil? Then we could all learn the tune and whistle while we work.

"reckoning" one part of the Three ahR's, readin', ritin' and reckonin'.

veddy important to count yer coins before 'andin' over the coin.

When I be a nipper , before ritin, I had to know me tanners, bobs, 'apence, pennies, treppenzees, and farthings, no paper, just coin, and "allways" must have the correct change, otherwise I would have to miss my next meal.

Do not mess with the Privilege ones, what can a Sheriff do, no wonder the Colonies be staffed with disgruntled citizens.H o L

"... Samuell Gardiner and William Salsbury, Officers belonging to the Sheriff of London, now Prisoners in The Fleete, expressing their hearty Sorrow for arresting of William Jones, menial Servant to the Lord Hatton, a Peer of this Realm, and humbly begging the Pardon of this House for the great Crime by [him] them committed therein:..."

Thanks, as ever, Terry, for the Royal Society minutes. One thing that always puzzles me is all this ordering of members -- Hooke repeatedly -- to do experiments or produce instruments. It sure seems an instance of "no good deed goes unpunished": Hooke has a good idea, so the Society orders him to act on it right quick. Might not Hooke want to pursue -- or not pursue -- his ideas at his own pace? By what right does the Society order anyone to do anything?

"The same [ Mr Hooke ] hauing mentiond his two Instruments the one for fetching vp earth from the bottom of the Sea the other for fetching vp the seuerall sorts of earths out of the ground on the Land was orderd to get them both made wth speed."

@ Louise H "By what right does the Society order anyone to do anything?"

Hooke was formerly a member of Robert Boyle's household, and from 1662 became the Society's 'Curator of Experiments' and therefore their employee. Throughout his life Hooke's social position was somewhat ambiguous and, despite his having a University degree, many did not think of him as a 'gentlemen' but as a privileged mechanic.

Louise H, what Michael Robinson says about how Hooke was perceived bears on his later quarrels with others over credit for discoveries -- with Newton over gravitation and with Oldenburg over watch escapement. In doing others' experiments over and over, he added innovations, and the ambiguity.

His personal difficulties entailed his being very late to be formally accredited. Although Gresham Professor of Geometry since March 20, 1664, Hooke received the degree of "Doctor of Physic" not until December, 1691.

As I see it, Hooke was the epitome of a new kind of "philosopher", dealing most of the time in what today we would call science and in his time was yet part philosophy and part alchemy. There was little place yet in University for this kind of activities.But change was in the air. The French King instituted the "Academy of Sciences" at his palace this year (1666) and this was his second Academy. The first one, the Academie Francaise, based on the same principles, was incorporated decades before. It remains very active and influencial till this day (against Franglais). All paid by government.In London the Royal Society was incorporated without government monies. In this way only the rich could be comfortably part of this Society. There were also those like Hooke, or Newton for that matter, sponsored by the Society for different jobs parallel to the Society's interest.The Royal Society's edge over the French institution was their relative independence from the authorities, because they did not relay on official monies for expenses. Good for them and good for us.

Collaborative credit for work in the natural sciences in pretty much the norm these days, albeit priority has been pretty important in the 20th century.

Any paper in the journal *Nature* is an example of sharing credit. Perhaps the best-known example of competition is the race to determine and model DNA run by the team of Watson, Crick and Franklin (read the 1980 Norton critical edition of *The Double Helix* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Double_Helix

The Royal Society were doing some of this collaboration -- you will have noted the appointment of experimental committees -- but still tended to think of ideas as the products of individual minds. This was an epistemological hiccup.

Ideas, of course, had since Plato been regarded as universal, but Francis Bacon -- the godfather of the experimental method -- et al., thought otherwise, but had not clarified an alternative that wasn't individualistic.

(There are still some Platonists around, but that's a political/religious discussion.)

No jealousy alarms raised for Goodgroome? I put him at about eight yrs older than Pepys so perhaps he's off the radar. Couldn't find an age for Pembleton (the dance teacher - has it been that long?) but I'm guessing he was no doubt younger. Maybe Pepys has mellowed with easier availability to other avenues.

I also think that "ordered" had a less peremptory meaning in the 17th century than it does now, something more on the order of our "asked" or "invited." We see a survival of that gentler meaning in a usage like "I ordered a sandwich," which doesn't mean I demanded one. Unfortunately my OED on CD-ROM couldn't manage the transition to my current operating system, so I can't check the facts for myself.

So poor Hooke, he be a professional i.e. needed monies from the till, while most of the others had backers or could live off the family income, or like Samuel had another source of income other than coffers of the FS.

I still hear " you know who I am " [that is how one gets into the "Casa Blanca"]

It is good to have brains, money, title, and a good dose of common sense, it happens.